Authors working with large publishing houses are not responsible for creating advertising copy for their books; the publishing house’s marketing department does that. But owners of small publishing houses and entrepreneurs publishing their books themselves do need to create high-impact advertisements to effectively promote their books.
Understand the Target Audience
Whether you are publishing novels or non-fiction books, crafting an advertisement for books requires an understanding of who the most likely readers are, just as any small-business owner would need to understand the target markets for the company’s products or services. Picture the likely readers of your book – their demographic characteristics, needs and interests. Think about what message they are most likely to respond to. Look at ads for best-selling books in your genre, to see if there are elements in common in the themes or wording of the ads. This tells you the same approach might be successful with your ad.
What’s New or Different
The ad should clearly explain how the book provides new information, or in the case of a novel, an exciting plot and interesting characters that the reader has not seen before. A good way to get a feel for how to write a plot summary for a novel is to look at catalogs from book clubs, which usually have online editions as well. The tone of the ad matches the style of the book. Suspense-novel ads, for example, hint at the danger and challenges the characters will face. With non-fiction books, the ad should show how the information in the book can make readers' lives better, save them money, or provide other benefits. Successful ads for books stress these benefits, just like ads promoting other kinds of products.
Before purchasing a non-fiction book, readers often look at the biographical information about the author on the back cover to evaluate whether the author is a credible source of information. In the ad, list the author’s signature achievements in his field. For novels, the ad often lists other books the author has written, particularly if they made the best-seller lists.
The advertising campaign for a book begins before the ad itself is created. The book’s cover needs to be an effective advertisement for the book as well. The ad should include an image of the book’s cover. Obtain the assistance of an experienced book-cover designer who can help you match the cover to the book’s content and attract interest from your target market of readers. Color, type style and graphics on the cover are all important to helping your book stand out in the ad and on bookstore shelves. The title and author of the book are repeated in the text of the ad. Be as concise as possible in the wording of the ad, including only the essential details the potential reader needs to know.
The ad should show the suggested retail price and how to order the book, whether through a toll-free number or by mail. Most small publishers and self-published authors also create a website for the book where the customer can order it and see other books from that publisher or author. Include the website address in the ad.
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